A pervert who for more than six-and-a-half years downloaded thousands of child sex abuse images has been jailed for a year.

Wayne Green subscribed to a “sports tips” website which was a front for distributing the sickening pictures, many of which were at the highest levels of four and five.

A judge told the 51-year-old married father, of Hempstead Road, Hempstead: “You thought you would never be caught.

"You sat in the comfort of your own home not once thinking of the misery you indirectly were causing to those children.”

The self-employed lift engineer admitted 19 charges of making indecent images of a child.

Of the 5,500 found on his computer, 954 were at level four and 107 at level five, depicting sadism or bestiality.

Kent Police said Green was identified in an operation conducted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in which 22 people from the UK were found to be using a pay-per-view website to see images of children suffering sex abuse.

Paul Fotheringham, head of the force's Public Protection Crime Unit said: “Kent Police works with many partner agencies, including CEOP, to tackle this type of horrific offence.

“There is no excuse for viewing, downloading or searching for images of children suffering abuse.

"These are images of real children, where a child is suffering real abuse and we will continue to work to stop this horrific crime and bring offenders before the courts.”